The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Successful People Bill Gates Everyone agrees that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is a successful person, perhaps the most successful business-wise in the modern history of the world. Without a college degree, Gates owns and heads Microsoft, installed and operating in most computers. With a personal wealth in the billions, he is the world's richest man, with more money than the inherited oil wealth of any sheik. For the past number of years Bill and his wife Belinda have been giving away Bill's money through the philanthropic Gates Foundation, for causes which would normally be low on the totem pole such as last year's $22 million to the U of M for aids research in India. In early March the Gates' philanthropy struck again with a $15 million donation to bring technology and training to two remote schools in Manitoba. The schools, one in Norway House and the other in Cranberry Portage, will get help and support to train staff and students on Microsoft's programs, technical skills high in demand in many jobs. The head of Microsoft Canada said they want to use these schools as an example for other underprivileged schools in Canada. Some critics of Microsoft suggested (as expected) that the donation was simply to capture the students and hook them on using the company's software. So what? It was an offer even the NDP couldn't refuse. By the way, Bill Gates provides computers, software and Internet service to all libraries in the USA. He pays for everything and the libraries are not allowed to charge the patrons. This gives computer and "net" access to the poor as well as the better off. Svend Robinson Would you consider Svend Robinson, the long- time and now ex-NDP Member of Parliament for Burnaby-Douglas in B.C. a successful person? After all, Svend is as high profile as TV and questionable conduct can make ? one who has a string of firsts in Canada. He was Canada's first openly gay MP, the first to go to jail for a logging protest; the first MP kicked out of China and Israel, and the only one in living memory who heckled a visiting US president (Ronald Reagan). Always close to a TV camera, Svend became a leading proponent for gay rights and gay marriages, successfully getting the Liberal government to add gays to Canada's hate law legislation. Apparently now if any church people or other Canadians speak out against gays or gay rights they could in theory be prosecuted. (Conservatives and many others are opposed to this attack on the freedom of speech). On Good Friday, things fell apart for Robinson who always failed to follow Will Rogers' advice: "Never miss a good chance to shut up". Picking out a ring for his boyfriend, Svend pocketed the $50,000 gem in full view of video cameras, then two days later tearfully turned the ring in to the police and admitted his misdeed. What will happen to Svend? If you or I did this we know what would happen but no one is saying whether he will be prosecuted. He took a medical leave from Parliament and was given a permanent leave by the Burnaby NDP. By the way, Robinson is the second Western NDP Member of Parliament to be caught shoplifting, so it can't be added to his string of firsts. The first was Lorne Nystrom of Saskatchewan, whose transgression was minor compared to Svend's. Joe Clark Would you consider Joe Clark to be a successful person? After all, he was an Alberta kid who became Tory Youth leader, then MP, was elected (twice) as leader of the national P.C. party, becoming for nine months Canada's youngest ever Prime Minister. Defeated by Brian Mulroney for leader, Joe became a high profile and highly respected cabinet minister from 1984-93, then elected leader again to replace the departing Jean Charest. In the view of most Conservatives, Joe threw it all away when in late April he announced his support for Paul Martin over his leader Stephen Harper. His statement: "better to trust the devil we know" has gained him the enmity of most of his former admirers and is referred to by some as a "traitor" and "bitter old man". There won't be any Conservative tag days, dinners or appointments for Joe Clark by any Conservative government. Flin Flonners How about successful Flin Flonners and not only in hockey, although there are many successful graduates of the Flin Flon Bombers. Dozens of local citizens have achieved success in medicine, politics, government, education, business, trades and the arts. In medicine there is Main Street boy Dr. Frank Gunston, widely acclaimed for his invention of the artificial knee. In politics and government, who better than Bud Jobin, Manitoba cabinet minister and later Lt. Governor of the province, or CFAR's Buck Whitney, a 10-year cabinet minister from the North. In education consider Dr. Glenn Nicholls, Hapnot history teacher and later Deputy Minister of Education. In business there was Frank Dembinsky, former mayor and later a major player with Gendis Corporation in the U.S. There are multiple examples in other fields including those who stayed in Flin Flon. People such as Jimmy Goodman, known for his leadership at HBMS, his musical productions, and basketball; Gordon Mitchell; Jim Wilson; and The Reminder's Tommy Dobson and Jean Young to only mention a few. See 'Success' P.# Con't from P.# Of course one has to mention modern Canada's most famous and successful voyageur paddlers, Norm Crerar and Gib McEachern. Here is a new one. He is Jim Perchaluk, son of Ethel and Bill Perchaluk. Ethel taught math at Hapnot and Bill was a geologist and later partner and contract manager for Midwest mining. Armed with a master's degree in Computer Science, Jim founded a successful Manitoba software programming company and wrote a program called Unionware. Unionware is used by unions in Canada and the U.S. to keep track of and contact membership, union dues, strike funds and virtually everything else they need. It has been widely accepted by unions such as The New York Public Service Union which is the world's largest local with 230,000 members, the Alberta Nurse's Union and recently the 11,000 strong Northwest Airlines flight attendants, and even Coors Brewery to only mention a few. Prestigious Cornell University in Ithaca New York has asked for permission to feature the program in its technology classes which includes a great number of part-time union people. This September, Jim will visit Cornell, known internationally for its medical and technical research, to instruct the professors on Unionware and how it is best used. What this could mean is that Jim's program will become the standard for Union's software use in Canada and the USA, certainly a modern success story for a Manitoba business.
